Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[dacaw]

Less channels on HDTV cable

We've had HDTV since Jan 2004. We don't have cable - we get all the channels we need over a 12-year old antenna, most of them in picture-perfect 720p or 1080i. Watching West Wing on 1080i is a real pleasure! We never watch on analog any more. We use a 32" Zenith integrated HDTV set, $899 at Best Buy.

Problem with HDTV cable is that there's only so much bandwidth and cable companies have sold the # of channels as a figure of merit. So if you go to HD content you get less channels. I can't see that customers are going to be all that happy at paying more for perceived less, even if the channels they lose are crap content.

You can see the ridiculous level of compression that the cable companies are using now. The quality of the picture is awful, even on analog. Over the air (OTA) is much, much better.

My friend is thinking about going HD cable for one reason - Playboy porn on HD! I think he will go to Zoom. I mean - he wants warts and all.

I would like a PVR but it has to be HD and I don't want to end up with an out-of-date system, so much is yet to come in HD - especially the HD DVD format. I think I'll set up a dedicated small box for doing it and I'll use an Athlon64 for the purpose. I think I can do it with a DVI out for the picture and use the Picture-In-Picture to handle the system functions.